Boundary element analysis of fracture mechanics in anisotropic bimaterials

This paper presents a boundary element formulation for the analysis of line ar elastic fracture mechanics problems involving anisotropic bimaterials. T he most important feature associated with the present formulation is that i t is a single domain method, and yet it is accurate, efficient and versatil e. In this formulation, the displacement integral equation is collocated on the uncracked boundary only, and the traction integral equation is colloca ted on one side of the crack surface only. The complete Green's functions f or anisotropic bimaterials are also derived and implemented into the bounda ry integral formulation so that discretization along the interface can be a voided except for the interfacial crack part. A special crack-tip element i s introduced to capture exactly the crack-tip behavior. Numerical examples are presented for the calculations of stress intensity factors for a straig ht crack with various locations in infinite bimaterials. It is found that v ery accurate results can be obtained by the proposed method even with relat ively coarse discretization. Numerical results also show that material anis otropy can greatly affect the stress intensity factor. (C) 1999 Elsevier Sc ience Ltd. All rights reserved.